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Harare, 15 March, 2015 - La Via Campesina, an International Peasant Movement, will be represented at the World Social Forum in Tunis as from March 24th up to 28th by a bunch of fifty delegates, made up of peasant (men and women), farming labors, from more than 20 countries of the global regions, with a particular focus of the Arabic world delegates.

La Via Campesina considers this as an important space for mobilization opportunity around alternatives and proposals in favor of Food sovereignty as well as strengthening the solidarity with the allies and other social movements, mainly the Maghreb and Mashreq ones.

In fact, the 2015 WSF will be held at a crucial moment at which the social movement are seeking for justice, freedom and solidarity. The set goals and orientations do take into consideration the political, social and economic changes in Maghreb-Mashreq, and as well in the African continent, with regard to the ecological and economical crisis around the entire globe. The identified objectives are indications of a better solution to all these crucial issues, and promote the convergences and alternative construction.

La Via Campesina's electronic newsletter, the March 2015 edition, is now available. It highlights the International Women’s Day (8th March) and the various actions organised on that day. The newsletter also captures different issues from the regions. Download the newsletter, read and share it! Globalize the Struggle! Globalize Hope!

The Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) calls and encourages all organizations, pastoral, networks, activists and social movement to join the mobilizations that will mark the International Day of Struggle Against Dams, in defense of the Rivers, Water and life, which will happen during the week of struggles of March 14th.

(Brazil, March 6, 2015) This date was defined in 1997 during the 1st International Encounter of People Affected by Dams in Brazil. Since then at this date the dam affected population in the world denounces the hydro-electrical power sector which has caused serious social economic, cultural and environmental consequences.

The hydro power energy has become a central element in regaining the capitalist appropriation and production. The whole production chain of electricity, from the construction of hydropower plants to the generation, transmission and distribution of energy has become a source of profits and intense conflict, which features a real robbery of our natural resources.

For immediate release

Zimbabwe, Harare, 18 March 2015 – “Agroecology is political; it requires us to challenge and transform structures of power in society. We need to put the control of seeds, biodiversity, land and territories, waters, knowledge, culture and the commons in the hands of the peoples who feed the world,” according to the declaration of the International Forum of Agroecology.

More than 200 people took part in the forum, held in Nyéléni, Mali, from February 23 to 27, representing organizations of peasants, indigenous people, agricultural workers, artisanal fisherfolks, and nomadic pastoralists, as well as consumers and other urban people. They met to develop joint strategies to promote agroecology and defend it from corporate co-optation.

The declaration, available in English, Spanishand French, calls for an immediate transformation based on truly agroecological food production by peasants, artisanal fishers, urban farmers etc. “Agroecology was always essential to humanity, because it builds autonomy for the food producers and provides a strong base for food sovereignty,” says the document.

The participants warn that “agroecology is at a crossroads.” They note that “many multilateral institutions, governments, universities and research centers, some NGOs, corporations and others, [have] finally recognized agroecology. “But, they continue, "they have tried to redefine it as a narrow set of technologies, to offer some tools that appear to ease the sustainability crisis of industrial food production, while the existing structures of power remain unchallenged.”

They call this the “co-optation of agroecology to fine-tune the industrial food system, while paying lip service to the environmental discourse”, and note that this has various names, including “climate smart agriculture”, “sustainable-“ or “ecological-intensification”, industrial monoculture production of “organic” food, etc. For them, “these are not agroecology: we reject them, and we will fight to expose and block this insidious appropriation of agroecology.”